Tag Archives: Northwest

“I would like you and supporters to know that there was a symbolic protest at Washington Correctional Center for Women in Gig Harbor on September 9. Three women refused to go to work in the prison library. The emergency response team was dispatched and the women were taken to Segregation. At their hearing last week, they were given 20 days in seg, and are facing reclassification and probably the loss of their jobs. In my opinion, this was a peaceful, non-violent expression of their opinions meant to draw attention to the issue of prison labor, and the response was much more disruptive than the event itself. The library has been closed since September 9. According to DOC, this was the only action in the entire state of Washington.”

2PM: Teach-in at Chapman Square
3PM: March to Prison Profiteers
6PM: Reconvene at Champman for a Noise Demo @ the Justice Center (across the street from Chapman Square)

On Friday, September 9th, people across Portland and Northwest will converge in Downtown Portland in solidarity with the US wide prison work strike against prison slavery and white supremacy. Our goal is a mass showing of support with the growing prison rebellion in the US and to also march on the corporations in the Downtown area that make massive profits off of prisoner enslavement.

Slavery is legal in America. Written into the 13th Amendment, it is legal to work someone that is incarcerated for free or almost free. Since the civil war, tens of millions of people most arrested for non-violent offenses, have been used as slaves for the sake of generating massive profits for multi-national corporations and the US government. Today, prison labor is a multi-billion dollar industry which helps generate enormous wealth for key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, telecommunications, technology, the US military, and everyday house hold products.

The strike, which starts officially on September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, is historic. The strike is being led by groups such as the Free Alabama Movement, Free Texas Movement, Free Ohio Movement, Free Virginia Movement, Free Mississippi Movement, and many more. Prisoners have asked that supporters hold noise demonstrations outside jails and prisons, protest, disrupt, and demonstrate outside of corporations that profit from prison labor, and also support the strike that is happening across the US. Continue reading →

In 8 days (9/9/16), the 45th anniversary of the Attica Prison Rebellion, there will be a coordinated work stoppage by prisoners across the US.

Prisoners are among the most acutely oppressed and exploited workers. Mass incarceration, historically speaking, has direct continuity with Southern chattel slavery (and under the 13th Amendment, slavery remains legal so long as the slave is convicted of something first. The criminal “justice” system, of course, has always been complicit in maintaining racialized enslavement.) Whether it’s private prisons, large-scale deportation (thanks Obama!), or prisoners being hired out to work for pennies at gunpoint, prisons exist to serve the ruling class. They enforce and reproduce white supremacy, and show brutally directly that the state does not stand outside capitalism, systemic racism, and the power of the ruling class – it administers and enforces them. Nothing short of prison abolition must be revolutionaries’ goal. Continue reading →

Info Night! Get in the know with Prisoner Support and Resistence, here in the Pacific Northwest and across the world! Learn whats going down, the history and discuss ways to create a new world in the shell of the old!

Originally published to It’s Going DownAdd Your Event:info[at]itsgoingdown[dot]org

People are organizing across the United States and the world in order to stand in the streets in solidarity with those locked behind bars who will strike on September 9th against prison slavery. Already, a wide range of actions have taken place in the run up to the strike. This includes large scale flyering and street propaganda campaigns, banner drops, noise demonstrations outside of jails and detention facilities, and informational events. All of this activity helps to build the capacity of the strike to bring in more people who can take an active role, as well as spread information about the struggle being waged by prisoners on the inside. These actions also bring many organizations, crews, and individuals together that before have previously never worked side by side and helps expose white supremacy as both a system of social control and racial apartheid and an apparatus of management that facilitates the creation of billions of dollars of profits.

Slavery is legal in America. Written into the 13th Amendment, it is legal to work someone that is incarcerated for free or almost free. Since the civil war, tens of millions of people most arrested for non-violent offenses, have been used as slaves for the sake of generating massive profits for multi-national corporations and the US government. Today, prison labor is a multi-billion dollar industry which helps generate enormous wealth for key industries such as fossil fuels, fast food, telecommunications, technology, the US military, and everyday house hold products.

The strike, which starts officially on September 9th, the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, is historic. The strike is being led by groups such as the Free Alabama Movement, Free Texas Movement, Free Ohio Movement, Free Virginia Movement, Free Mississippi Movement, and many more. Prisoners have asked that supporters hold noise demonstrations outside jails and prisons, protest, disrupt, and demonstrate outside of corporations that profit from prison labor, and also support the strike that is happening across the US.

This is not just a prison strike for better wages or conditions, it is a strike against white supremacy itself.

Upcoming Events in Portland to Support the Strike:

Thursday, August 25th, 7pm, Anarres Infoshop, 7101 N. Lombard St, Portland: This political education event will discuss the ongoing work in the Portland area connecting various struggles against the Prison Industrial Complex, immigrant detention and police violence. Speakers will discuss the importance of cross movement solidarity for collective liberation as well as how people can get involved supporting incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and friends and families of those locked up. The Prison Divestment and and September 9th coalitions in Portland will be present to discuss various projects and organizations to plug into.

People are organizing across the United States and the world in order to stand in the streets in solidarity with those locked behind bars who will strike on September 9th against prison slavery. Already, a wide range of actions have taken place in the run up to the strike. This includes large scale flyering and street propaganda campaigns, banner drops, noise demonstrations outside of jails and detention facilities, and informational events. All of this activity helps to build the capacity of the strike to bring in more people who can take an active role, as well as spread information about the struggle being waged by prisoners on the inside. These actions also bring many organizations, crews, and individuals together that before have previously never worked side by side and helps expose white supremacy as both a system of social control and racial apartheid and an apparatus of management that facilitates the creation of billions of dollars of profits.

In order to better prepare for the strike, here we are going to create a regularly updated page that includes a diary of actions and a list of events and mobilizations leading up to and around the 9th. We know that many events are still in the works, so when you are ready, either submit an event here or email us at: info[at]itsgoingdown[dot]org. In this way, we hope to build a large, multi-faceted, and extremely diverse resistance movement that can support and expand the strike against prison slavery that will continue to take shape on September 9th and beyond. Continue reading →

In Response to “Fighting the Real Enemy” by SOSO :an Article in the Under Lock and Key (a widely distributed publication in prisons) by the Maoist Internationalist Movement.

Joshua Cartrette (left)Patrick Morris (right)

As a member of the organization pushing the mass prisoner work-stoppage beginning September 9th, and of one of the anarchist betworks laying the groundwork, and being familiar with MIM (prisons), after some certain correspondences, I’m inclined to offer this public response.

First, we are not calling for a work-strike. A strike by definition is temporary until resolutions are reached between slave and master so that we will continue the process of being exploited. We are not organizing a simple strike. We are going to stop working. Period. Some groups and individuals may, at some point start working again, but a lot of us, including myself. Will not.

Second, it should be clear that UFPP is not the only organization, group, network, or individual which has been building praxis around September for several years, and we believe that recognition, credit and support should be given to all of those groups and individuals- including UFPP and USW — whether we necessarily agree with their political line or not.

Third, our call for a work-stoppage is not merely in “recognition of growing protests in prison” as SOS claims. Recognition comes from an observational perspective, not from a participants’ and those making this call have been the same who’ve been making those protests happen to begin with. This choice of word-usage by SOSO might be seen as a subtle attempt to undermine the work a lot of us have been doing. Personally I’ve spent several years in solitary confinement as a result of my own participation in prison resistance, and in September I’ll likely be going back, so maybe you should be the one to “recognize” SOSO. Continue reading →